Journey of Many Nuisances
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Roddy is on the verge of finally being reunited with his dad, Hardy, after so long. But before he's free to travel to London, there's still a lot to get sorted out back in Misthallery. Including recruiting an unexpected new member into the Black Ravens... Grasping Liquid side-story. Roddy father theory fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes:** It's a Roddy father theory fic! ...Only it'll take a little while to get to the actual father part. This is a side-story for Grasping Liquid. It's set sometime after the events of Part Twenty of the main story, but I'd recommend having read up to and including at least Part Twenty-Five to avoid spoilers for Grasping Liquid.

* * *

It was a crisp, chilly morning when Roddy set out to meet Marilyn and Gus. The frost had settled firmly onto the ground, as a cautious reminder of the dangers that the frequent mist could bring to their town. But Roddy defied this warning as his feet crunched through the frost without fear. It took him only a few short minutes to get to the market stall. It was a walk that he'd done countless times before, though perhaps not for many more...

As the mist cleared a little he saw the other two talking quietly to each other. For a moment he thought that they were holding hands, but if they had been then they pulled away when Roddy got there, both looking a little sheepish. Not that it mattered to Roddy. Whatever Marilyn and Gus got up to in their own time was their business, not his.

"Thanks for coming," Marilyn said, when Roddy had reached the stall.

"Couldn't ignore an order from the leader of the Black Ravens now, could I?" mumbled Roddy.

"Yes, that's... kind of what I called you here to talk about," Marilyn admitted. She took an apple from the display and tossed it towards Roddy; "But first I think you should tell us what's happening on your end."

Roddy caught the apple and took a bite out of it, before he carefully answered, "There's not much to say."

"Rod, we all know that's not true," Marilyn protested.

"Maybe it's not, but it would be easier if it was," retorted Roddy, with a heavy sigh, "The real situation isn't convenient for us. I lied to Crow when he was leaving, all right? When I told him that it'd still be a while before anything happens on my end, that wasn't true at all. Mum wants us to go to London as soon as possible."

"That's good though, isn't it? You'll finally get to be with your dad after waiting so long," Marilyn pointed out.

"And leave Misthallery with just four Black Ravens," Roddy added, "You can be as optimistic as you like, Mal, but the group can't manage with only that many. Especially not now that the auctions are getting more attention."

"That's my problem. I'm the leader, so I'll figure it out if you want to leave," Marilyn insisted.

"But you don't even want to be the leader. Don't think that we can't see that," argued Roddy. He was pleased to see that even Gus nodded in agreement to this; "You took on the role because Crow thought you were best for the job and you didn't want to give him more to worry about now that we'd finally convinced him it was okay for him to go. So I'd be leaving you with one less person to rely on, running a job that you already struggle to balance alongside keeping up this fruit stall."

Marilyn grinned a knowing little grin; "Don't you think that I haven't already gone over all of this in my head, Roddy? As far as the stall's concerned, Mum's been improving a lot lately, so Dad can run it more than before. And Gus has also been helping me with it on top of that. As for being stuck in a leader role I don't want, well..."

Here she trailed off as more footsteps could be heard coming towards them. Part of Roddy wondered if Marilyn timed these sorts of announcements purposely to cause that sort of dramatic flair, which was a very Crow thing to do. Personally Roddy didn't have time for that. He'd rather everyone just got on with what needed to be done. Which was ironic, given that he was currently in a situation where he couldn't get on with his own plans.

The new arrivals turned out to be Arianna and Tony, who had much further than the others to walk to get down from their home to the market. They both gathered around the stall and Tony gratefully took the apple that Marilyn offered him, although Arianna declined one for herself.

"I hope we haven't missed too much," she said.

"Nothing at all," Roddy lied.

"Actually, there is something that I wanted to ask you about, Arianna," corrected Marilyn, which made Roddy nervous, "We've been worried for a while that with so many Black Ravens gone we'll fast become short-handed around here. People leaving is not something that can be helped, but we do need to find a way around it. Do you have any suggestions for what we could do about that?"

Arianna nodded; "The obvious answer would be to hire more people."

"And why wouldn't we do that?" checked Marilyn.

"Because Crow wouldn't like it if we did," Tony answered, "He chooses who gets to be in the Black Ravens and right now he isn't around for us to ask him."

"...But?" Marilyn pressed.

"He also isn't around to stop us," Arianna replied, "He gave us free reign, so we should be able to bring in whoever we want. Even if Crow might not like it."

There were mixed reactions to this statement. Tony definitely looked uneasy at the notion of going behind Crow's back and even Gus, who would probably agree it was the only way, didn't seem too pleased by the idea. Of course Roddy couldn't see his own face, but he was willing to bet that he might have looked the same as well.

"So we look to expand our numbers. That seems like a sensible option," Marilyn continued, not giving the others a chance to object, "The problem being that, even without Crow's approval, we can't bring just anyone into the group. So, are there any suggestions?"

"Finch has wanted to join us since forever..." Gus mumbled. He sounded doubtful about this even as he said it.

"But he wouldn't work, not from the start," Arianna debated, "I'm not saying that we could never mould him into shape, but he'd be too much like, forgive me for saying this Tony, but too much like you were back when you first joined. All starry-eyed about the Black Ravens, without realising that what we do isn't just a game. That's fine when we have the freedom to teach someone up, but we need someone who's going to be ready from the start."

"There's no one like that in Misthallery though," Roddy pointed out, "If we're just looking at people who are around our age, all of them would take work to make them fit in with us. Finch is too star-struck, Sean is shy and clingy, don't even get me started on Jakes's son, Hans or whatever he's called."

"You missed out one," Marilyn hummed.

"Who'd I miss?" Roddy checked, "I think that's all the lot who live up around Great Ely. Unless you mean... oh no, you can't..."

At this point, Roddy was aware that the others were looking between him and Marilyn as if they were some sort of spectacle. It must have seemed that way, given that Marilyn was smiling like a cunning fox and Roddy's frown could have scared off a rampaging bull.

"Why not him?" Marilyn challenged.

"Because Crow hates him. As in properly hates him, not just for part of his hoity leader act," explained Roddy, "Everyone else he can kind of put up with, but not him. And I'm pretty sure that the feeling is mutual. In fact, I know that it is. So he wouldn't join us anyway."

"Who are you talking about?" Tony asked.

"Charlie Webster from up North Ely," Roddy clarified, "The boy that was bidding against Crow for the bear at that auction. Look, I know you're all going to think that I'm being difficult here, but there's history there. Charlie and Crow knew each other since before the Black Ravens were even founded and from what I saw it didn't end on good terms. Crow doesn't want Charlie to have anything to do with us and Charlie won't want to be caught dead in this market either."

"Well then, if there's no chance he'd join us then no harm will come of asking him to," Marilyn prompted.

"It'd be a waste of time," growled Roddy, who knew where this was going, "Time we could be spending seriously finding people who could join the Black Ravens."

"You're right," Marilyn agreed, "Gus, I know it's early, but could you head up into town and find Hans?"

"We're not letting Hans join!" roared Roddy.

"Finch then," corrected Marilyn.

"No!"

"I-I could g-go ask Sean...?" suggested Tony, not sure he should be butting into this at all.

"Those are our options," Marilyn reminded Roddy, "Hans, Finch, Sean or Charlie. It's about choosing the best candidate for the job."

"Charlie would bring nothing to us," Roddy insisted.

"He had the fire to fight against Crow. You don't find that just anywhere," Marilyn stated. Now all the humour had dropped from her voice. She was being deadly serious.

"Maybe he does, but he'll still say no anyway," retorted Roddy.

"If you're so sure about that then why don't you ask him?" Marilyn challenged, "It'd make sense for you to do it, given that you seem to know much more than the rest of us about his history with Crow. You could be much more tactful than we could."

"Ugh... this is such a pain!" Roddy proclaimed, "But fine, I'll do it just to prove you wrong."

"Then there's no time like the present," Marilyn concluded.

It was now too late for Roddy to realise that he'd walked right into her trap. A trap that she'd probably planned from before they'd all got there that morning. She truly could have been a good leader if she wanted, but Marilyn was a much better tactician. Not that it mattered, since Roddy was certain that he was right about Charlie.

As he stormed away from the table, Roddy just caught Gus's voice as he whispered to Marilyn that she never talked about the leader situation like she said she would, but Roddy didn't stick around to hear the outcome of that. He was on a mission now.

Misthallery was built on a hill. The further you got into the town, the higher up you travelled. That went for the social classes as well as the geography. At the very bottom was the market, where all the people who couldn't afford to be anywhere else lived, past that you'd get further up and into what Scraps would regard as the insufferable middle-classes, people who at one time thought they were much better than the Black Ravens (though thankfully in recent years that stigma was dying off a little), and right at the top you had Barde Manor, home to the richest two people in Misthallery. And luckily for the other Black Ravens, the Barde siblings had turned out to be two of the nicest people as well.

Where Roddy was headed was North Ely, which lay comfortably in that middle section. Maybe most of the people there had shaken off their old prejudices, but some of them decidedly hadn't. And Roddy was here to find one of the worst offenders.

He stomped through the street, trying to figure out exactly which house belonged to Charlie's family. In truth, he wasn't sure that he'd ever seen it before, since Roddy didn't make a habit of coming here other than when he needed to pass through for Black Raven business. It always felt too much like he didn't belong and Roddy didn't like that.

Fortunately, it turned out that he didn't have to look as far as to find Charlie's house, because his target came straight for him. He watched as a door opened and Charlie daintily stepped out onto the streets. The boy then brushed himself off and turned around to regard Roddy with stern curiosity. It was clear that Charlie had only come out because he'd seen Roddy hanging around, but even so he made no attempt to talk to him. To Charlie, it was enough to just watch and see what Roddy would do.

Roddy had never been one for small talk, so he walked right over to Charlie.

"I need to talk to you," he informed.

"My parents are just in the house," warned Charlie.

"How very nice for them," Roddy sighed, with a roll of his eyes, "Look, I'm just gonna get to the point so that we're not wasting each other's time-"

"-Are you implying that I would waste your time?" gasped Charlie.

"Yeah. Why?"

"That's such a cruel and untrue thing to say. An ugly brute like yourself should be honoured that someone like me would even spend a moment of their precious time on you," Charlie huffed.

Normally Roddy would let this slide, but he was having a bad day; "I'm sorry, am I getting in the way of you sitting up in your bedroom reading comics alone or loitering around on your doorstep passing judgement at everyone who goes by? Because we all know that you don't have any proper friends to spend time with."

"How very dare you!" snapped Charlie, "For your information, I'd rather have no friends than be anywhere near Crow's horrible fan club. A-and sometimes I hang out with Finch..."

"That pretty much answers my question then," admitted Roddy, "You don't want to be near us. So I won't bother you any more."

With that, he turned to leave. In any other situation, it could be thought that Roddy was baiting Charlie to call after him, but in truth, Roddy just wanted out of here. He didn't care to deal with this and he was looking forward to telling Marilyn that, for once, she was wrong.

Pity he didn't get that far before Charlie did exactly what Roddy didn't want him to do.

"Wait...! What question were you going to ask?" Charlie called.

Honestly, Roddy could have ignored him and left. There was no obligation to stay and all that would happen was that they'd draw out a conversation that would probably end in the same result. But Roddy heard that particular tone in Charlie's voice. A desperate loneliness that wanted to know why someone might want to talk to him, even if he would deny that was the case if someone were to call him out on it. Perhaps he was a bleeding heart, but Roddy couldn't walk away from that.

So he turned back to Charlie and muttered, "I've been sent here to ask you something. On behalf of what you'd call Crow's fan club."

"All right, I suppose I can hear out what the dregs desire to say to me," chimed Charlie, his swagger instantly returning.

"Yeah... right. Well, this is kinda something big that we don't talk about to just anyone, so I'd appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut about it whatever you choose, even if I guess you have no reason to," Roddy said. Now that he had put it into words, he could see just how dangerous openly telling someone who hated Crow about the Black Raven could be. Sure, all of Misthallery knew about the auctions these days, but that didn't mean they knew a bunch of teenagers were the masterminds behind them. Nevertheless, he'd been told to do this, so he ploughed on, "Look, I know you hate Crow and you don't want anything to do with him. But he's gone now and we're short of hands for our... work. I've been sent here to ask if you'd join us, but I already know that you're going to say no, so if you can hurry up and say it then we can both be on our ways."

There was an uncomfortably long pause. Charlie was actually considering it.

"What is it that you do?" he eventually asked.

"You won't believe it," Roddy assured him.

"I'd believe almost anything from Crow," admitted Charlie, "Try me."

"All right then, remember that auction up at Barde Manor? The one that you made an idiot out of yourself in? And all those other auctions that everyone's been talking about ever since then? Yeah, well those are us. We're the Black Ravens. And, for some reason, our leader wants you to join," Roddy explained.

There was a strange light behind Charlie's eyes; "...Crow wants me to join?"

"What? No, not Crow. He's not the leader right now. Marilyn's the one who wants you to join," Roddy clarified, "Trust me, if Crow was here you wouldn't even be in for consideration."

"So Crow wouldn't want me to join then?" Charlie checked.

Roddy realised too late what he'd just said.

"N-no, probably not. But it's still his group. There's no point in joining just to get back at him, because he could still come back and throw you out on your ears at any time. Which he probably will do one day. So you should save yourself the embarrassment and just say no now. Because on top of that it's also a lot of hard work and everyone knows how much you hate-"

"...I'll do it."

"You don't have to!" Roddy begged.

"No, it would be wrong of me to turn my back on those who need me," Charlie announced, "I've read enough super hero comics to know what the right thing to do is and helping peasants like yourself is exactly it. If you just give me a few minutes, I'll just go inside and get changed into something a little more suited to roughing it down at the market. This is a nice shirt and I wouldn't want to get it ruined. Oh, and I should probably pack a decent lunch, since I have no idea how long you'll need me down there for. Mother did buy some good, soft bread just yesterday, so I could make some cucumber sandwiches. And now that I think about it, you'll all probably be so honoured to spend time with someone from a better class of life such as myself, so I should probably bring some of my comics down for you to marvel at. Do you all prefer Beano or Dandy? Actually, scratch that. You probably have that tat down there already. I should bring the comics that Father brought back from his visit to America. You've definitely never seen anything like those. Yes, just give me about five or ten minutes and I should be ready to go."

With all that nonsense having spouted out of his mouth, Charlie turned and practically skipped back inside his house. All Roddy could do was stare after him as grim defeat settled in.

"...What a pain," he grumbled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** In this chapter there's an extended cameo from two holidaying police officers who really should know better than to be in an underground black market.

* * *

The trip back down to the market with Charlie was what Roddy would consider to be a pain. Maybe he did use that term a lot, but if he knew what a pain was then there was no point in dressing it up as anything else. And Charlie was a pain. A pain who had dressed himself up in a ridiculously over-the-top duffle coat and had a bag full of comics hanging over one shoulder.

About half way there Charlie got tired of carrying the comics and demanded that Roddy did it for him instead. What. A. Pain.

To make matters worse, when Roddy did eventually get Charlie to the market, he couldn't find Marilyn anywhere. It was Gus who was standing behind the fruit stall.

"Where's the boss?" Roddy asked, "I brought Charlie like she wanted me to."

"Marilyn's not here at the moment," replied Gus, who annoyingly looked a little amused at Roddy's frustration, "She's had to go make a delivery to the next town over for her dad. But she should be back later."

"You've gotta be kidding me," grumbled Roddy.

"No, he's not. But that doesn't mean we can't manage while Marilyn's away."

Roddy turned to see Arianna, looking as stern as she usually did. As a rule, Roddy liked Arianna. She didn't take any nonsense and stuck to the point, which was easier to deal with than some of the others were. However, right now he had a horrible feeling that she was in on something that he'd been left out of.

"Right, so what do you think she'd want us to do with Charlie now that I've brought him here?" Roddy checked.

"He can join Sean on the induction course," answered Arianna.

"What induction course? This isn't an office job. And why is Sean here? Didn't we agree this morning that Charlie was the one we wanted?" Roddy barked. This was suddenly becoming too much for him to want to deal with.

"We need to cover some basic training when bringing new members in," Arianna replied, "And as for Sean, well... the more members the better, surely. Tony's been friends with him for a long time and after we talked about him this morning, he kept going on about it. So Marilyn said before she left that it would be okay to at least try, since we're trying out Charlie anyway. Between them both, hopefully at least one will turn out to be a decent Black Raven."

"I'm not arguing with the boss," Roddy sighed. He'd accepted how inevitable this all was; "Just tell me what to do with our new recruit over here."

He motioned towards Charlie, who seemed to have lost some of the colour from his already pale cheeks. It was easy to guess why that might have been. Charlie was proud of his money and wanted to lord it over the market kids when he'd come here. But in truth, even if his family were better off than them, Charlie was still just some middle-of-the-lane brat who couldn't hold a candle to the wealth that the Bardes had. Chances are he had no idea Arianna and Tony were involved in all of this, though maybe he should have guessed given that they'd held auctions in their manor. And now that he knew they were here there was no way that he could rub his own status in anyone's face. It'd just be embarrassing when he was stood next to them. Roddy was at least slightly amused to see the wind knocked out of Charlie's sails so early. Maybe that would encourage him to leave faster.

Arianna regarded Charlie and then said, "Lead him down to the auction hall. That's where Tony and Sean are. He can join in with them in having a look around the place and being shown the basics. You can drop his bag off in the storeroom."

"Is there a place to hang my coat...?" Charlie checked, hopefully.

"You might be able to dump it on a crate," muttered Roddy.

"Are you out of your mind?" Charlie scoffed, "I'll have you know that this is the finest quality garment, all the way from Paris. It is not something that you just dump anywhere!"

"Funny, because the label sticking out the back says 'Made in Liverpool'," stated Gus, from where he was stood at the counter.

"It most certainly does not! How can you even see it from all the way over there?" Charlie huffed. He whirled around to face Gus and, regardless of who was being honest about the matter, Charlie still defensively grabbed hold of the label so no one else could see it.

"We'll have a coat rack somewhere you can put it on," Arianna cut in, before this could get any worse, "We auction antiques, so we usually have one or two around."

"Where do you even find antiques?" asked Charlie, as he looked back towards Arianna, "I had wondered that at the auction. You had so many rare things there..."

"Get on the induction course and Tony will tell you everything you need to know," Arianna retorted.

Charlie didn't need to be told again about this. He glanced at Roddy with an expression that clearly read 'lead on'. In return he got a grunt from Roddy, who headed off towards the manhole that went down to their base of operations. As they walked together, Roddy still quietly wished that Arianna could have thought of another name for what they were doing – even crash course would have sounded better. The way she put it made it seem too much like a professional business.

...Although maybe it was time to accept that was what they were.

As they descended down there were some suitable oohs and aahs from Charlie. Like most people who'd come here for the first time, he probably had no idea that there was anything of this nature under the streets of Misthallery. And Roddy had to admit that over the years they'd managed to make the whole place look impressive. He'd maybe be a little offended if anyone wasn't awe-struck by it.

In the hall, they found Tony and Sean. From the looks of it, Tony was reeling off facts about the Black Ravens at ten to the dozen from where he was stood up on the stage. But when he saw Roddy he shut up and made his way over.

"Brought Curly here to join your little induction course or whatever," Roddy said.

"Curly? Is that his Black Raven name?" Tony asked.

"No, it's just something that Louis and Crow used to call him sometimes," Roddy replied, "We haven't really done the whole animal name thing for a long time. That was more Crow's idea, but some of us weren't as into it as others."

"That's a shame, because me and Sean were just trying to come up with a one for him," Tony confessed, "It's a bit late for me now, but I reckon that Sean could be Vole or something like that. It makes him sound cool."

"Sean is fine as a name," Roddy insisted. He'd been one of the ones who hadn't been too into the nicknaming concept, along with Louis, Marilyn and Gus.

"Maybe I want a new name as well," Charlie interrupted, "If we're going to make this official."

"Look, call yourselves whatever you want. I don't care. Just get to work on this training like Arianna or Marilyn or whoever wants you to," shot Roddy.

With that, he turned on his heels and left. He instantly felt bad for snapping, especially given that both Tony and Sean were a little nervous by nature. But he'd had enough on his plate to deal with today and having people witter on about silly nicknames was the last thing he needed right now. For once he decided that maybe this would work out better if he let the others just get on with it.

There was something else he'd been ignoring that he needed to get back to.

Roddy pulled himself back out of the underground base. He made a quick detour to the market stall to tell Gus that he was going to be away for a while. As much as he knew that he should probably check with Arianna that this would be okay, sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission and he knew that Gus would just let him get on with it. After all, Gus did now know a little about Roddy's family situation from the talk they'd had this morning.

With that out of the way, Roddy headed back to his house. He stopped briefly to gather up the washing he'd hung out to dry earlier that morning and then went inside.

"I'm back, Mum. Just gonna put the washing in the airing cupboard," he called.

Then he made his way over to said airing cupboard and started to fold up the clothes. He decided what would and wouldn't need to be ironed as he went, separating these into two different piles. As he did this, his mum joined him.

"There you are, Roderick. I was wondering when you'd be back," she chimed, "I've had your dad on the phone this morning."

"...What did he say?" Roddy cautiously asked.

"Only what he's said every time for the last few months, that he can't wait for us to get down to London as soon as possible," his mum informed. Then she gently added, "Look... Roddy, I know that you care a lot about your friends, but you can't hold this off forever just to stay with them. We've been waiting a long time for your dad and sometimes moving away is just part of growing up. You'd have a job waiting for you in London and I'm sure you'd make new friends, even if it won't be the same."

It was difficult to talk to his mum about this, because she didn't know about the Black Ravens. That was something that Roddy had always been careful to keep away from his home life and now doing so was coming back to bite him on the bum. To Roddy's mum, it looked like Roddy was merely being stubborn about not wanting to leave behind his childhood friends. There was no way he could begin to explain to her that he was involved in something as big as black market auctions. Not this late in the day. She just believed that he made his money from doing odd jobs for people around town.

"You're right..." Roddy mumbled, helplessly, "I think I'll be ready to go soon. But I just need... a bit more time."

"We don't want to rush you, son, but we have given you a lot of time already," his mum replied, softly but not without its intent.

"I know. Thanks, Mum..."

He didn't blame his parents for this. He didn't even blame the Black Ravens. There wasn't anyone to blame in this circumstance, it was just something difficult that he had to deal with. And he hated it. Part of him just wanted the Black Ravens to be ready so that he could leave them without fear, just like Crow, Badger and Scraps had. It wasn't selfish to feel that way, surely.

Maybe... maybe this was why Marilyn had been so keen to bring in new members all of a sudden. She might have been doing it for Roddy's sake. But even so, he couldn't bring himself to accept half measures just to make things easier for him.

So Roddy kept his nose down for the rest of the day, doing his household chores and trying his best to avoid further talk with his mum about the matter. It wasn't until the evening when he decided to get away again, heading out into the brisk Misthallery air.

"Nice night for a stroll."

It was Marilyn, walking with Gus. The two of them were headed by with some leftovers from the stall, presumably to take to Marilyn's home to use in some kind of baking. There was never any waste in her family.

"Good to see you're finally back," Roddy muttered.

"Don't be like that, Rod. I wasn't the one who swanned off for no reason," Marilyn tutted, "Although maybe that isn't fair. I know that things can't be easy for you right now."

"No, they're not. But you're not helping. I know what you're doing, but it's only going to make everything worse," Roddy growled.

"I'm sorry if I'm not helping, but you're mistaken if you think that I'm doing all of this for your benefit," corrected Marilyn.

"You're bringing in new members so it won't be so bad when I leave, aren't you?" Roddy checked, "I understand that doing that will help you too, but it's wrong to ask people who aren't right for us to join just to cover that. I can wait until we find better options."

"But you can't wait, Rod," Marilyn argued, "I know you want us to think that you can, but your mum talks, too. She comes by the market everyday and there's been nothing else on her lips for ages except for much she wants to go to London and be with your dad again."

"And you're wrong to dismiss those two so quickly," Gus added, "Maybe we haven't been able to keep an eye on them today, but Arianna has and she knows what she's doing. She does say that Sean will need a bit of work to get him out of his shell, but we can put him in the background working the curtain or something until he's ready. And Charlie has so much confidence that it won't be long at all before we can get him on stage."

"Crow would never want Charlie on his stage," muttered Roddy.

"Can we stop pretending this is about Crow? None of this has anything to do with him," Marilyn sighed, "This is about the Black Ravens that are still here and one who might not be here for much longer. We need to get ourselves sorted out before we worry about what Crow would want. And surely what he would want is what's best for us, even if that might involve Charlie."

Roddy knew that he was being difficult. In truth, maybe Crow was just an excuse he was using and it came more down to his pride than anything else. Regardless, he didn't reply.

After a long silence, Gus said, "At least give them a chance. Crow gave us a chance."

"Fine. One week to see what they can do. That's what Crow gave us," Roddy concluded, "If they seem to be getting on all right in that time I'll consider going to London. But if they're not..."

"...Then you'll go to London anyway," Marilyn grimly concluded, "You really have no choice about that."

Unfortunately, Roddy had to agree that she was right.

* * *

Neither Charlie nor Sean were made aware of this ultimatum, but Roddy kept a close eye on them as the week wore on.

For Sean's part, he might as well have been a second Tony, albeit even more nervous and apologetic whenever he made mistakes. But he was eager to please and did any work he was told to. The Black Ravens were no strangers to taking in shy members and Roddy knew that in time Sean would probably come into his own in the same way that Tony, Gus and Badger had done. He wasn't too worried about Sean.

Whereas Charlie gave him more reason to worry. The whiny boy made it quickly apparent whenever he didn't want to do something. The list of jobs that Charlie didn't want to do included (but was not limited to) heavy lifting, light lifting, lifting of any sort, dealing with any stock that he deemed too dirty or worthless, any handiwork that involved using tools and also raising the curtain, which he considered beneath him. It was getting to the point where they were all starting to wonder if there was anything Charlie would do and a horrible part of Roddy was slightly glad to have been right about him.

The one thing that Charlie definitely did want to do was get on stage, since he assured them all that he was born to take the spotlight. But even this was brought to a halt. Both because they weren't sure that Charlie would stick to a script and because he deemed the Black Raven outfit as too 'garish' in apparently 'the wrong ways'. He'd begged them to let him improve it, a matter that they'd flat-out refused him over. Though Roddy did have a sneaky suspicion that one of their outfits had gone missing from out the back...

No one wanted to be the one to have to look after Charlie, but because Roddy had the most reason to follow the progress of the new members he ended up being stuck with him more often than not. On one such occasion, when Charlie had refused to do everything else, Roddy simply led him out of the auction hall to the market stalls they kept littered in the tunnel that led up to it. They were both dressed in Black Raven garb (much to Charlie's dismay) and he looked around curiously.

"Why are we here?" Charlie asked.

"Keeping an eye on things," replied Roddy. This was actually a lie. The only reason they were here was because he'd run out of anything else they could do; "We let the punters in this far to have a look at what might be on offer at the auctions. It's mostly replicas, but we still don't want them nicking stuff."

"I see," hummed Charlie.

That was it for a while longer. The two of them casually patrolled the stalls, mostly keeping out of each other's way. There were a few people around, as since they'd made themselves more public it was hard to find a time when this wasn't the case, but not too many. Nothing they couldn't handle.

Roddy had managed to convince himself this was the case long enough to zone out. He'd tried to forbid himself from thinking too much about the situation at home, because he was worried it would distract him, but when he had a moment like this it was hard not to wonder what it might be like when Mum and him finally did get to London. They didn't have much money, so they'd all have to stay with Dad, but that was what they wanted. They'd waited years to be together. And as much as Roddy might have been annoyed with his dad for leaving at first, once he'd learned the details of what had happened with the underground London fiasco it was hard to stay that way. None of what had happened was his dad's fault. All Dad had been trying to do was provide for his family, like he always had done. And now the three of them had a chance to be together, with Roddy old enough to help out his parents on the providing front...

He'd drifted into this thought for long enough that he was a bit slow on the uptake to the sound of voices. Not that talking was unusual down here, many customers travelled together and would discuss the auctions amongst themselves, but this voice unmistakeably belonged to Charlie. Because Charlie was talking to a customer. By the time Roddy realised this he was already too late to stop him.

"How dare you say that about my good quality wares!" Charlie snapped. There was no attempt to put on the Black Raven's voice.

"Doesn't look good quality to me," muttered the man he was talking to, who had a remarkably long chin and gave off the vibe of someone who was usually dressed in uniform, "Don't mean to be rude or anything, but it just looks like the same sort of old tat that I could find at a gift shop in Blackpool."

"All that shows is how uncultured you are," huffed Charlie, "Only a true connoisseur of the arts could tell the difference between this porcelain carousel and the kind you'd find in any old shop. I'm not surprised that the subtlety is lost on you. Perhaps you should move along and find something more to your standards."

Roddy was about to step in to stop Charlie from further insulting their potential customers, but before he got there something almost magical happened. A stout man with a brown moustache and a large belly came over to the table to have a look at what they were talking about.

"Is that right, Colby? Are you really not good at art?" the man asked.

"Of course I am, Barton. Do you actually think that this little thing is all that?" asked Colby. Both of them looked worried.

"I wish the Inspector was here," the one called Barton sighed, "He knows everything about everything, so I bet he'd know if it was worth buying."

"The items on display here are not for sale," Charlie told them. At least he'd managed to get that one right.

"Aww, come on, mister. You've got us interested now," whined Colby.

"I bet if we took this back for the Inspector it'd be a lovely gift for him and Amelie," hummed Barton, "And he'd be impressed with how much we know about art."

"Hmm... I suppose I could part with it, since it sounds like it's going to a good cause," Charlie thoughtfully offered.

"And is it really all that great?" checked Colby.

"All that and more," promised Charlie, "You won't see another one of these for decades, if you're lucky enough to see one at all. But since I'm a generous person, I'll let you have it for £25."

"No way am I paying that much!" Colby gasped, his hands raised up to his chin in shock.

"Come on, Colby, don't be cheap," protested Barton.

"I'll lower the price to £20 for you, but that has to be my final offer or else I'm making a loss," Charlie tried.

"No, I'll pay the £25. Wouldn't want to be cheap," concluded Colby.

...And just like that, Charlie had made a sale. Roddy watched in awe as he took the money from Colby, then carefully picked up the model carousel and wrapped it up in some tissue paper for the two of them. He gestured to Roddy to pass him a box and thankfully there was a respectable-looking one around that was about the right size. When the item was boxed he then passed it across to the two men and bid them on their way. They both left with smiles on their faces, happy to get such a good deal on something so rare.

Once they were gone, Roddy turned to Charlie and gaped, "How did you do that?"

"What, sell something? Isn't that what we're suppose to do?" Charlie defended.

"No, I meant lie like that. We've had that thing for years - it was just some tat from Louis's parent's living room that I bet they did get from some gift shop for next to nothing," Roddy explained.

"I'm... not a stranger to making things sound better than they are," admitted Charlie. It was impossible to see his face under the mask, but he sounded embarrassed; "It's all about being offended enough and people will usually believe that they're the idiots for not knowing what you know."

"That's terrible," Roddy commented, "...And it's also exactly what Crow would do."

"Well in that case I never want to do it again. Not if Crow does it," Charlie snidely replied.

"No, you should do it again! You should do it a lot. That's exactly what we want you to do," instructed Roddy.

"Then why didn't you say so? Instead of forcing me to do all that horrible lifting and trying to fix up broken furniture. I could have been doing this from the start instead of wasting all of our time," Charlie claimed.

Even if he had miraculously found his place in the Black Ravens, Charlie was still Charlie. It made Roddy glad that he wouldn't have to deal with him for much longer.

And as that thought crossed his mind, Roddy realised that he'd accepted in himself that it would soon be time to leave. That the Black Ravens would manage without him, even if they had a long way to go until either Charlie or Sean were fully ready. But then again, which of them could claim that they were ever fully ready for anything? Only Marilyn, perhaps.

Speaking of Marilyn, another Black Raven came through the big doors to find them. When this one spoke up, it became clear that it was Tony.

"Our leader wants us all to gather in the auction hall for a meeting. Not optional."

"She's sounding more and more like Crow every day," grumbled Roddy.

But he didn't object and the three of them made their way inside to find out whatever it was that Marilyn wanted to talk to them about all of a sudden.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes:** We finally get to the father part of the father theory fic. And this chapter also marks the end of Roddy's side-story. Next time it'll be back to Grasping Liquid, with the beginning of Act Four.

* * *

Roddy, Charlie and Tony made there way through to the auction hall, only taking off their Black Raven masks once the heavy doors had been pulled shut behind them. A quick look around the room showed that the others were all already there. But given how few of them there were these days, it didn't take much to gather everyone together. Since both Marilyn and Gus were here, Roddy could only assume that Marilyn's dad was looking after the stall today.

They gathered around Marilyn, who was sat on the edge of the stage with her legs dangling over. Arianna stood behind her and off to the side, formal as always, but otherwise everyone loitered in front of the stage.

"Thanks for coming," Marilyn started, "I wanted to do this at a better time, maybe make a bit of an event of it, but this is the only day I was sure Dad could watch the stall without me and we're coming up to the end of the week, so I didn't want to run out of time. And to be honest, I don't have Crow's flair for being grand anyway. It's not my style." She looked over at Roddy; "I'm sorry we haven't had a proper auction yet to prove to you what you wanted to see, but I hope you don't mind me doing this first."

"As if I even know what it is you have planned for this meeting," replied Roddy, "And besides, I think that I've seen everything I needed to."

"Oh?" Marilyn hummed.

"I know you're both being vague so it seems you aren't talking about us, but I can assure you that just before we came in here I was showing Roddy exactly how brilliant I am. Which is very brilliant, for the record," Charlie airily stated.

There was a smirking exchange of glances between Marilyn and Gus, which mortified Roddy. He had no idea what they found so funny, but he didn't want anyone to think anything other than Black Raven training had happened between him and Charlie!

"That's very nice," chuckled Marilyn, "But anyway, I should get on with what I have to say. Look, I'm not going to mess you all about – you know I hate being the leader. It's not that I can't do it, but I don't have the same drive for telling people what to do as Crow did and I don't want to. I've always liked being reliable Marilyn who you can fall back on for advice, but doesn't necessarily have to tell you what to do. Advice is different from instructions. With advice you can take it or leave it, whereas being the leader means you have to know what everyone needs to be doing at all times and be able to make a snap decision at a moments notice. I don't like doing that. And while I do it for Crow's sake, there does come a point when we have to stop doing things for Crow and do things for us. So I need to step down for me."

"We're all behind you, Marilyn," Gus assured.

"Thanks, that means a lot," replied Marilyn, "I know that whatever happens we'll look out for each other. But I also know that I can't leave you without a leader. So I've picked a new one."

She gestured behind her and Arianna stepped forward, hands held firmly behind her back. Sometimes it was hard to tell how Arianna was feeling, but right how her head was held up high with pride.

"I hope that I can continue the standards that the auctions have always maintained and even lead them to greater heights," she stated.

"Arianna is better at being in charge than me and if you can't see that then you haven't been looking properly," Marilyn said. She then hopped down off the stage and turned to give Arianna a low bow; "So if you'll let me get back to advising from the background then I'll gladly follow you, my leader."

"There's no need to be so formal," Arianna laughed, "But yes, I'll be happy to have your advice when you can lend it, but also give you the rest you need." She then looked around the group as a whole; "So I suppose my first act as leader should be to ask if anyone has anything else they want to say before we get back to preparing for the auction?"

Roddy knew this was the right time.

"Yeah, there is one thing," he said, and stepped forward, "Some of you know this already and I'm sorry for keeping the rest of you in the dark, but I'm gonna be leaving soon as well. It's not the best timing, with the others going just a little while back, but I've put it off for long enough and I can't any more. What happened is that some time ago Mum and me finally heard from Dad."

"That's great news," Tony cheered.

"For us is was, yeah," agreed Roddy, "I've gotta admit, for a long time I thought he'd just ran out on us and we'd never see him again. Maybe a bit cynical, but that's just what it seemed like when we heard nothing. Turned out the truth of it was that the building project he'd joined in on was just a scam and he'd somehow got involved in that underground London thing. You know, the one were all those people thought they were in the future and that was just how it was? ...Dad's always been too trusting. But anyway, that happened and many of the people involved needed some serious help to get back on their feet afterwards, including my dad. He was too ashamed to contact us sooner, but I kinda wish he had done. As soon as Mum talked to him on the phone it was as if no time has passed at all. I wish that was really the case..."

"S-so are y-you going to live with him...?" Sean questioned. It was rare for him to speak up.

"Yup, in London for all places," Roddy answered, "Maybe when I'm there I'll find Crow and give him a clip behind the ear for not writing. But I dunno where he'll be. Where I'm gonna be is working with my dad on this big shopping complex he's helping to construct. But I wanted to be sure that you could all manage okay without me before I left. Should have known better though – Black Ravens always manage, no matter what gets thrown at us."

"We're tough as they come. And we'll always be here, if London doesn't work out for you," Marilyn promised, "Though, given how long you've waited, I hope that it does."

"So do I," admitted Roddy.

"How long have we got you for?" Arianna asked, "Do you have a date you plan to leave yet?"

"Not an exact one, but it'll be soon, I think. Though I will stick around for the next auction. Both to keep an eye on the new guys and so I have one last one to look back on," replied Roddy.

"It won't be the last. Once you find Crow in London I bet he'll already be knee-deep in doing auctions and want you on board," assured Gus.

"Maybe so. But this time he'll have to get in line behind my actual job," Roddy dismissed.

And just like that, the big announcements were done. They had a new leader of the Black Ravens, two new members and everyone knew that Roddy would be leaving soon. An amused part of Roddy's mind considered that if Crow came back then he probably wouldn't recognise the group that he'd left behind. Maybe that was for the best, though. Knowing Crow, by the time Roddy next saw him he'd have a plan so different that Roddy wouldn't recognise it either.

With that in mind, he trailed out with the rest of them, ready to get back to work for one last time.

* * *

It felt like all too soon before Roddy was actually leaving. His mum had cried when he'd told her that he was ready, then she'd hugged him and told him that she was so proud. It was nice to finally be able to let all of this go, so the two of them could move on with their lives.

Unlike the others, Roddy had insisted on not having a big farewell and none of them went against that wish. He didn't deal well with leaving ceremonies and there'd been too many times that the Black Ravens had been made to stand on that bridge to say goodbye to one of their own in this last year. So instead he'd quietly said his farewells to all of them individually. It had been easier for some than others, since he still barely knew Sean and had few nice things to say to Charlie, but he'd managed it all the same.

Only Marilyn and Gus came to see him off on the day. They were the last three members of the original Black Ravens here in Misthallery and soon there would be just two. Roddy tried not to feel bad about that.

"This is it then," he said, as he finished loading suitcases into the back of the car that was waiting for him and his mum, "Another one off to London."

"You'll do just fine," said Gus, not for the first time.

"I bet you'll even get Crow back on the right path when you do find him," Marilyn added.

"Assuming he's strayed off it. Actually, this is Crow we're talking about, so I bet he never found the right path to begin with," Roddy chuckled, "But... thanks, you two. I hope that it all works out here, both with the auctions and with whatever's going on between the two of you."

"Don't know what you're talking about," chimed Marilyn.

"Can't say I do either," hummed Gus.

"Whatever, I get it," Roddy concluded, "Just take care and I'll do the same."

"You can believe we'll do that," promised Marilyn.

They talked for a little while longer, but in the end Roddy's mum called for him to get in the car and he'd figured that he'd made her wait for this trip long enough. So with a few more sad goodbyes he left Marilyn and Gus, as well as the rest of Misthallery, to set his sights on London.

The drive there was a long one. Miles of countryside stretched out ahead of them. But eventually the quiet lanes were replaced by busy ones as they gradually got closer to London. The familiar shades of greens and yellows were replaced by varying hues of cold grey as the city came into focus. They even experienced their first traffic jam, though it wasn't something that either his mum or himself wanted to repeat again. As much as Roddy had an idea there'd be many more of them in London. What a pain.

At first they stuck to the main city roads, which were large and busy, but after a while they made their way off onto smaller routes and Roddy soon learned that even here some roads were as twisted and narrow as the ones in the rural town he'd come from.

The car came to a stop in front of a large construction site that was cut off from the world by a high metal fence that went all around it. Roddy could only assume that this was where his dad was working now.

"Your dad told me that we'd be staying in the shacks they've put for for the workers. It's nothing glamorous, but then we haven't come from glamour ourselves," informed his mum, as they got out of the car.

Roddy didn't care about where they were staying, though. He'd live in a dustbin if it meant that his family got to be together again.

The two of them walked up to the gate and pressed the buzzer, neither quite knowing what to expect. They were greeted by the barks of a yappy dog, not that they could see it through the gates. Roddy assumed that they probably had lots of guards dogs in places like this, so he wasn't too surprised.

"Leave it off, Ringo, you're not scaring anyone."

The gate was pulled open and in that moment both mother and son saw the one person that they wanted to see. He was looking a little worse for the wear, probably from having worked all day, and he was as ugly as Roddy had remembered him being, but he'd never been happier to see anyone in his life.

"Oh, my sweet dear...!"

His mother launched herself forward, grabbing her husband in a tight hug. Roddy let her have the first go, since she'd waited longer than he had and, unlike Roddy, had never doubted that he would come back to them. So Roddy made do with looking past them to where a few curious builders were watching the scene along with a couple of dogs – the small, yappy one and a giant, hairy one that kept quiet.

After about a minute, Mum pulled away and let the other two have a moment. Roddy awkwardly shuffled over. It seemed that neither of them quite knew what to say after so long.

"...The Hardy family's finally back together again," his dad settled for.

"I'll work hard," Roddy blurted out, before he knew what he was saying, "I might complain a lot, but I'll work hard so that we never have to be apart again. So that we can all stay together, all right?"

His dad laughed, "I don't doubt that you will, son. Now come in here and meet your two new brothers – Ringo and Sausage. Here they are now!"

"Please don't call those dogs my brothers, Dad," Roddy warned, though it was in jest. He was the happiest he could ever remember being.

This was the start of something new in his life and he had no idea where he was going. But, as much as he told himself this was the case, deep down he knew that it maybe wasn't entirely new. If it had been then he wouldn't have packed a Black Raven outfit into one of his suitcases. Because you never knew when you might need to chase intruders away and Roddy reckoned that, even if it wasn't sparkly enough for Charlie's tastes, the outfit would definitely be good enough to be used for that.


End file.
